that's the single most popular proposal for doing something about the deficit would be t let the bush tax cuts for the wealthy expire. and yet that goes nowhere in washington. >> you know, there is an organized, powerful constituency for deregulation, for high-end tax cuts, forul policies that a neglecting some of the serious middle class strns. and there just isn't anything of comparable size or power on the other side. and that has pulled washington way, you know, way toward the concerns of the most affluent, most privilegedst members of ou society and led them to often neglect the real struggles that americans are facingci during ts economic crisis, struggles that are magnified versions of what americans have been going through for 25 years or so. >> there was a time when we were sure that a strong middle class was the backbone of a democracy. and there was a time, after the ii world war when i was a young man, when incomes actually grew slightly faster at the bottom and the middle than at the top, is that right? support that. >> yes, they do. we described that period arch world wa